Хлоўтѣц

Verb stem and order of inflectional affixes

The citation form (or dictionary form or lemma) of a verb is the uninflected infinitive. This is a fossilized form and is not used in the language outside of this one purpose. The infinitive ends with the vowel -а or -я, and removing this ending will produce the verb stem. The final consonant of the stem is called the thematic consonant and determines the conjugation paradigm the verb follows. The verbal stem may appear independently either as a bare imperative or as a deverbal noun.

Voice

In Iridian, the voice of a verb determines its relationship to the topic of the sentence. There is no single ‘default’ voice in Iridian, unlike in English, where the unmarked form of the verb corresponds to the active voice; instead, the voice of the verb must be explicitly marked by a suffix that attaches to the verb stem. There are four voices in Iridian:

1. The agentive voice is used when the subject of the verb is the agent of the action, as in the sentence Марек пящек. ‘Marek ate.’
2. The patientive voice is used when the subject of the verb is the patient (or undergoer) of the action, as in the sentence Bаска Маркам пяштнек. ‘The cake was eaten by Marek.’
3. The benefactive voice is used when the subject of the verb is the beneficiary of the action, as in the sentence Марек пяштебик. ‘Marek was fed, i.e., was made to eat.’
4. The locative voice is used when the subject of the verb is the location of the action, as in the sentence Низа васци Маркам пяштоўнек. ‘The plate was where Marek ate the cake.’

The voice of a given verb may be marked by a variety of suffixes, indicating, in addition to the voice, other connotations. We provide a survey of these suffixes in the following section. The voice-marked infinitive is known as the finite form of the verb, e.g., пяща, ‘to eat’ and пяштна, ‘to be eaten’ from the verb пяшта, ‘to eat.’

A verb does not necessarily have to take suffixes for all four voices. For example, most intransitive verbs take only the agentive voice: thus the agentive крайпа, ‘to snore’ does not have a patientive form.

Agentive voice

The agentive voice is used to indicate that the subject of the verb is the agent or doer of the action; in the case of intransitive verbs, the agentive is used where the subject is the undergoer of the action. There are three major suffixes that can be used to form the agentive voice: -ь, -т and -к.

The suffix -ь is frequently found in verbs denoting casual action or actions not involving movement of another thing external to the subject. When added to the voice stem the suffix -ь causes the softening of the thematic consonant, as follows:

1. Verbs with thematic т, к, ц or ч merge to a thematic ч, e.g., пяшта → пяшчa → пящa ‘to eat’ (the last change being merely orthographic);
2. Verbs with thematic д, г, x, з or ж merge to a thematic ж, e.g., лыха → лыжа ‘to run’ or бѣда → бѣжа ‘to think’;
3. Verbs with thematic п, б, ф в or м have their thematic consonant become пль, бль, фль, вль or мль respectively, e.g., пиба → пибля ‘to drink’ or храма → храмля ‘to borrow’;
4. Verbs with thematic с or ш merge to a thematic ш, e.g., цѣса → цѣша ‘to jump’;
5. Verbs with thematic л, р or н are softened in a regular manner, e.g., вола → воля ‘to lean’;
6. Verbs with thematic й-glide retain the glide unchanged, e.g., стоія → стоія ‘to go.’

The suffix -к is often used to denote deliberate action or actions involving movement of a thing external to the subject. The suffix is regular except for verbs with thematic к or -г where the sequence -кк- and -гк- becomes -цк-, e.g., озѣка → озѣцка ‘to say.’

The suffix -т is often used to denote a habitual or repetitive action, including the practice of a profession or occupation, or the performance of a chore or a recreational activity; it can also be used to denote the deliberate performance of a harmful or destructive act. Like -т, the suffix -к is also fairly regular, except for verbs with thematic т where the sequence -тт- and -дт- becomes -цт-, e.g., лоўда → лоўцта ‘to fool (someone).’

Most verbs take only one of the three agentive suffixes; nevertheless, there are a number of verbs that take -ь and either of -к or -т. The latter two suffixes are mutually exclusive, however, and a verb cannot take both. Other than the general semantic rules described above, there is no rule that governs which of the three agentive suffixes a verb takes, and the choice must be learned for each verb.

As has been mentioned at the start of the section, -ь verbs denoting movement refer to the movement of the subject itself, while -к verbs denote the movement of a thing external to the subject. The following examples illustrate this distinction:

On the other hand, where an intransitive verb may take both -ь and -т, the former is used to denote the permanent acquisition of a state or quality, while the latter is used to denote the temporary acquisition of a state or quality. The suffixes may also co-occur in some transitive verbs with -ь denoting a single object and -т denoting multiple objects. The following examples illustrate this distinction:

Patientive voice

The patientive voice is used where the topic of the sentence is the patient or undergoer of the action or in the case of verbs of motion, where the topic is the goal of the movement. There are five main suffixes that can be used to form the patientive voice: -ан, -айн, -ил, -ин and -ицн. Of these five, only -айн and -ин can take the latter directional meaning.

The suffix -айн is used where the action denoted by the verb affects the object only superficially, without changing its inherent structure; where used with a directional meaning, the suffix indicates that the action is directed towards the object. On the other hand, the suffix -ин is used where the action denoted by the verb significantly affects the object, changing its inherent structure; where used with a directional meaning, the suffix indicates that the action is directed towards the object, usually implying some contact with the same. The suffix -ил is used where the action denoted by the verb causes a change in the position of an object, without changing its inherent structure.

The suffix -айн can co-occur in the same verb with the other suffixes, in which case it always takes a directional meaning. Consider the following examples:

Intransitive verbs

Benefactive and causative verbs

Benefactive verbs select as their topic nouns or noun phrases referring to the beneficiary of the action. The table below shows the affix correspondence classes for verbs in the benefactive voice.

Valency

Causative form

Verbs in the causative voice select as their topic nouns or noun phrases referring to the cause of the action. The causative voice is morphologically derived from the patientive -ин form and the addition of the prefix по- or под- to the verb stem, depending on whether the stem begins with a consonant or a vowel, respectively.

Non-volitive form

Iridian distinguishes between actions that are performed voluntarily or intentionally and those that are not. The latter is marked by the addition of the prefix не- or ней- to the verb stem, depending on whether the stem begins with a consonant or a vowel, respectively.

Aspect

Grammatical aspect (or simply aspect) is a category in Iridian that is used to denote how an action or state described by a verb extends over time. Aspect contrasts with tense which situates an action or event as happening or being true at some specific point in time. Iridian does not mark tense grammatically, as does English, for example, and so the verb in English sentences ‘I am watching a movie on TV now’ and ‘I was watching a movie on TV when you called’ will both be translated using the same verb in the progressive aspect.

Aspect also contrasts with lexical aspect or aktionsart in that the latter, although also describing a verb’s structure in relation to time, refers more to an inherent property of the verb itself and is thus often invariant. Iridian also does not grammaticalize aktionsart, and thus the distinction between, say, Polish imperfective pisać, ‘to write’ and perfective napisać, ‘to write down,’ is not one made in the language (cf. Richardson 2007: 9–26; Comrie 1976).

Iridian formally distinguishes between seven classes of grammatical aspect, five of which are called primary since they are used to describe the aspect of an independent main verb while two are called secondary since they represent a verb’s aspect in relation to some other event. The endings are as follows:

Perfective aspect

Both the perfective aspect is used to represent actions that have been completed at some point in time.

The perfective aspect indicates an action that has been completed at some specific point in time. The thematic ending for the perfective aspect is -ек , but the initial -е is unstable and changes depending on the environment. It becomes -и after the patientive -ин- and the benefactive -еб-; the use with the passive -ин- also triggers the syncope of the initial -и- in -ин- or its conversion to an -е- where sonority rules do not allow the resulting consonant cluster. Thus a verb like пяшта, ‘to eat’ will have the forms пяштник, ‘was eaten’ and пяштебик, ‘was fed’ instead of *пяштинек and *пяштебек, respectively.

The retrospective aspect is used for a past action that has a continuing relevance in the presence. Often when using the retrospective aspect, the emphasis is on the resulting state rather than the event itself. Consider, for example, the following sentences: (a) ‘I went to Amsterdam last week’; and (b) ‘I have been to Berlin in my childhood’. Iridian would translate the verb in (a) using the perfective and the verb in (b) using the retrospective. The retrospective may also be called the perfect in other sources but we shall be solely referring to it as the former in this grammar to avoid any confusion. In addition, the retrospective in Iridian always has a perfective interpretation, i.e., a sentence like ‘I have been waiting here an hour’ which has a verb in the perfect is translate using the progressive instead of the retrospective.

Continuous and progressive aspect

Iridian uses the continuous and progressive aspects to denote actions that have not been completed yet and/or are in the process of happening/occuring. The continuous aspect (glossed cont) is used to mark a state of being while the progressive aspect (glossed prog) is used to mark a dynamic activity.

Хура уриштнія.
‘I am wearing clothes.’

Хура уриштниме.
‘I am getting dressed, i.e., I am putting on clothes.’

The continuous aspect is also used to denote a habitual action or state.

Aўтобусу хымнажа-до стожія.
‘I go to school by bus.’

Да Праха-на мозлашія.
‘I live in Prague.’

Contemplative aspect

Prospective aspect

The prospective aspect is a secondary form that is used for actions that have not yet begun and whose occurence has been interrupted by some other event. The prospective is often used in subordinate clauses but may be used in main clauses where the related event can be inferred from the context.

The prospective aspect is marked by the suffix -ов. A verb in the prospective aspect must always take the agentive voice suffix -ь regardless of its affix correspondence class; moreover, it must always be modified by either of the adverbial particles же ‘already’ or по ‘yet’. Clauses in the prospective aspect are often translated using constructions like ‘was about to’ or ‘was going to’ in English.

Grammatical mood (хтѣ)

grammatical mood is a grammatical category that expresses the attitude of the speaker or writer with respect to the proposition expressed by the verb. In Iridian, there are four grammatical moods: indicative, imperative, hortative, and conditional. Thus far, we have only discussed the indicative mood, which is the ‘default’ verbal mood in most statements, as this mood is used to express propositions that are true. The other three moods are used to express propositions that are not necessarily true, but rather express the speaker’s attitude towards the proposition. The imperative mood is used to express commands and prohibitions, the hortative mood is used to express requests and wishes, and the conditional mood is used to express propositions that are false, or whose truth is unknown or uncertain or dependent on some other condition. In this section, we will discuss the other three moods in more detail.

Imperative and hortative mood

To form commands and requests, the imperative (glossed imp) and hortative (hort) moods are used in Iridian.

The imperative and hortative are formed by replacing the infinitive ending -а with the voice marker and the imperative ending -им and the hortative ending -ас. Both forms cannot be negated with the prefix за as in the indicative mood; instead, a separate negative form is used for the imperative and hortative to express a prohibition or a request not to do something. The negative imperative ending is -уїам and the negative hortative ending is -ит. The table below shows the imperative and hortative endings for the verb піашта, ‘to eat’ in the agentive voice.

The imperative must always be suffixed with the weak forms of the second person (both singular or plural), the third person animate plural (which essentially functions in this case as a more formal alternative to the second person plural) or the first person plural pronouns. In the last case the imperative and hortative take an adhortative meaning similar to the English ‘let’s’. Unlike the indicative, however, this clitic pronoun is added directly after the imperative or hortative ending, and not to the conjunctive form.

Due to its directness, the use of the imperative or the prohibitive is considered impolite in most settings, and is often used only when speaking with friends, family or children. The hortative is preferred in the spoken language, especially in formal settings. This distinction does not exist in the written language, in particular in the case of signages, user manuals, and other similar texts, where the imperative is used almost exclusively for issuing commands or instructions. One significant difference is that where the imperative is used in the written language, the clitic pronoun is only optional.

The contrastive particle пъро or the affirmative particle што may be used with the imperative to express mild reproach or annoyance or with the hortative to indicate politeness.

In the above example, both »Да што странема« and »Да пъро странема« have been translated using the same sentence in English and the difference in Iridian may prove difficult to grasp at first. Both sentences imply some form of reproach by the speaker but they arrive at this implication differently. Since што has an affirmative meaning, it is used to reaffirm or strengthen the command without necessarily referencing the context; on the other hand, пъро contrasts the command with the context, implying that the command has been issued because the speaker has not done it yet even though he/she should have in the opinion of the speaker.

The same distinction is carried over to the hortative, albeit the politeness factor is more pronounced in the latter. The use of пъро with the hortative may further imply disappointment on the part of the speaker. For example, a librarian approaching a group of people making a lot of noise in a library may say:

The causative form is compatible with both the imperative and hortative mood, e.g.,

The continuous aspect marker -їа may be used with the imperative or the hortative to express a command or request which the speaker wishes to be carried regularly or habitually. The sound changes caused by the interaction of the continuous aspect marker with the imperative or hortative endings are summarized in the table below. This form is called the iterative imperative or hortative.

The hortative may be further softened (i.e., more polite) by the addition of the particle насъ, in which case the verb takes an optative meaning, usually translated in English using the modal verb ‘may’ or the construction ‘(I) hope that…’. Optative constructions like this allow the verb to take another subject other than the addressee/s.

Unlike the imperative, the hortative also admits the first person singular pronominal clitic -им; this form must always be modified by the affirmative particle што or the speculative particle дѣне. The first person forms also take oblative meanings, that is, they are used to express an offer for the speaker to do something. The use of such form is often framed as a question.

Conditional mood

The conditional mood is used in statements which are not true or verifiably true, or whose truth is unknown or is dependent on another condition. The use of the conditional mood include wishes, judgments, or opinions, among others. This form is also called the ‘conjunctive mood’ in other grammars (in contrast to the conjunctive form discussed in § 3.7), after the name in Iridian (конїунктивне хтѣ) which itself borrows from the German Konjunktiv. There are two forms of the conditional, the imperfective and the perfective, distinguished by whether or not the purported action has been completed. These are formed by the suffixes -ы and -а respectively. The table below shows the conditional endings for the verb пяшта, ‘to eat’.

A verb in the conditional mood cannot be used as a main verb in a sentence. The use of the conditional mood falls into two main categories: conditional sentences (discussed in § ??) and subordination (discussed in § ??).

The broadest of these use cases is the use of the conditional mood in clause of purpose, which is used in expressions of purpose, intention, or desire. The subordinate clause is usually marked by the particle ну.

Марку содалшы ну стожек.
‘I came here so that I could talk to Marek.’

Янек заведны ну ражек.
'Janek left so that he could not be seen.'

Марек кразенжы ну Янек жичек.
‘Janek told Marek to sing.’

Indirect questions follow the same pattern as indirect commands. They are used when quoting or embedding a direct question or when the speaker wants to ask the addressee a question indirectly. A direct question is terminated by тебы ‘whether’ rather than ну.

Ѣна колча коналоўнаіѣ тебы по важиме.
‘I am still wondering where I have left my keys.’

Кудніи отазкоў цчензы тебы хенерал прехоўсчек.
‘The general asked whether a new regiment will arrive.’

Conjunctive form (бежия мук)

The conjunctive form (called бежия мук, ‘linking form or bridging form’ in Iridian) is used in verbs appearing in secondary clauses in a sentence. It originated as a way to mark reported speech and evidentiality in Old Iridian, and while the conjunctive form is still used for this purpose in Modern Iridian, the usage has expanded to include relative clauses, subordination and other forms of clause linking. The use of the conjunctive form is discussed in detail in § 7.4. The conjunctive form of a verb is formed by adding the suffix -е to the fully-conjugated verb, often resulting to the palatalization of the final consonant in the suffix. The table below shows the conjunctive form of the verb пяшта, ‘to eat’.

Relative clauses are formed by placing the modifying clause immediately before the noun it modifies. The verb in the modifying clause is in the ‘attributive’ form, which is essentially the conjunctive form followed by the affix -нь.

Modality

Iridian can express modality either through verbal morphology, using the affixes listed in the table below, or through a periphrastic construction. In general a periphrastic construction is preferred when the verb is non-dynamic, i.e., the sentence is merely descriptive or stative in nature (compare, for example English ‘Mary can sing’ vs. ‘Mary was able to finish baking the cake’), while the morphological method is used otherwise

As in most languages, modal constructions in Iridian exhibit significant polysemy, i.e. a single construction can have one or more interpretation depending on the context. For example consider the following sentence:

Potential modality

Stative verbs

Iridian lacks a distinct class of adjectives. Instead, a special class of verbs called stative verbs are used to modify noun or noun-like classes. Unlike most verbs, however, stative verbs can only be marked for aspect and voice. In addition to this base form (called the copulative), stative verbs also have an attributive form (used when the verb is preceding the noun or noun phrase) and nominative form (representing a concrete nominalization of the verb), both of which are absent in non-attributive verbs.

The attributive form is formed by adding the suffix -ніи to the verb stem while the nominative form is formed by directly from the verb stem, subject to the usually phonological constraints. For example, the verb вшиха, ‘to be angry’ has the attributive form вшихніи and the nominative form вших.

The comparative is formed by using the suffix -нены instead of -ніи; Iridian does not have a distinct superlative form. The comparative form is often used, especially in colloquial speech, as an intensifier, even if the stative verb is not actually used in a comparison.

Bшихнены мамка телевониржек.
‘My mother was very angry when she called.’ (lit. angrier)

The copulative form behaves like a normal verb and can be marked for aspect, voice, and mood, among others. When used in copular constructions, however, the attributive form is used.

Мамка Янкам вшихнек.
‘Janek angered (his) mother.’

But:

Мамка вшихніи.
(‘My) mother is angry.’

As with regular verbs, the copulative form can be used in relative clauses, in which case in which case the verb takes the regular conjunctive form ending and the relativizing suffix -нь.

Тѣхо вшихнек. → Bшихницень Тѣхо сноў упрожилшах.
‘(You) have angered God.’ → ‘God, whom you have angered, will soon seek his revenge.’

When using multiple stative verbs as modifiers, the order is less restricted, with the order normally determined by whatever the speakers wants to emphasize. For example, one could write both глуцніи мордніи том and мордніи глуцніи том to mean ‘a thick, blue book’. It is also common, when using two stative verbs as modifiers, to use а , ‘and’ to separate the two stative verbs, as in глуцніи а мордніи том.

Nominalized verb forms

Event nominals and gerunds

Nominalization involves turning a verb or a verb phrase into a noun. The simplest such process is called lexical nominalization and involves an unmarked verb stem functioning as noun. For phonological reasons, this form of nominalization may also involve changes in the vowel of the stem as in вада ‘to think’ becoming вѣд ‘mind, thought’. The resulting noun generally expresses a verb-like or actional meaning. Nominalized verb stems appear in a few contexts as follows:

(1) The nominalized verb stem can be used in sentences with temporal or locative adverbs as predicate to emphasize the fact that the event is taking place at a specific time or location (denoted by the adverb). The equivalent denominalization will always feature a verb in the agentive voice and the imperfective or contemplative aspect.

(2) The nominalized verb stem can also be used in the sense of ‘the manner in which X is done’. This usage is interchangeable with the use of the gerund discussed below.

(3) Verbs of speaking and thinking are also often nominalized. When marking a quotative construction, this nominalization is equivalent to a construction with the patientive voice, i.e., the quoted clause is seen as the result of the act of speech. The speaker is marked with the genitive case.

»Так порожим« Марци грум.

Another type of nominalization is the creation of the gerund, which generally corresponds to the English ‘-ing’ form. There are two different types of gerunds in Iridian: the aspectless gerund, formed by adding the suffix -ац to the infinitive and the perfective gerund, formed by adding the suffix -ало to the infinitive. The perfective gerund would often be translated in English as ‘having + past participle’. The derived gerund forms are declined as normal nouns. Gerunds always take an agentive meaning; both the agent and the patient are marked with the genitive case, which may sometimes result in ambiguity.

Participant nominals

Participant nominals are formed by nominalizing a finite verb phrase in the conjunctive form with the suffix -ла. The resulting noun refers back to a participant in the event rather than the event itself, with the role determined by the grammatical voice in which the original verb phrase is marked. Consequently, participant nominals are inherently definite in meaning.

Copular and existential constructions

Copular constructions

There is no direct translation for the English verb ‘to be’ in Iridian. Instead, copular constructions are formed by juxtaposing the topic and the predicate. To negate a copular construction, the particle аніи is used, with the noun phrase being negated placed in the genitive case. If the predicate is a stative verb, it is negated using the prefix за as usual.

Марек саўста. → Марек саўцси аніи.
‘Marek is a doctor.’ → ‘Marek is not a doctor.’

Марек зушталніи. → Марек зазушталніи.
‘Marek is happy.’ → ‘Marek is not happy.’

Alternatively, the verb са ‘to become’ can be used. This verb always takes an agentive meaning and can take an unmarked noun or a stative verb in its attributive form as its argument, e.g., доктор са ‘to become a doctor’, вшихніи са ‘to become angry’. Са can be inflected for aspect as any other verb, but does not take any voice markers. The aspect-marked forms of са are as follows; the forms are all regular except for the perfective form, which is ска instead of сек.

Мартоўва президент 2008 хлету ска.
‘Martouva became president in 2008.’

Мартоўва 2008 хлету президент.
‘Martouva was president in 2008.’

When used in any of the two imperfective aspects, the verb са only has the meaning of ‘to become’ and cannot be used to express a state of being. The usual distinction between the continuous and progressive aspects holds. There are also two gerunds: the aspectless сяла (instead of сала) and the perfective сац.

Мартоўви Президент сяла/сац зушке малшек.
‘Martouva's becoming/having become president pleased my grandmother.’

Са constructions are negated by using the prefix за on the verb, e.g., заска ‘did not become’.

Existential constructions

An existential sentence is a specialized construction used to express the existence or presence of someone or something. In Iridian, the verbs іица and its negative form быца are used. Both verbs are defective like са in that they cannot be marked for voice. The continuous form of іица and быца are both used to express general truths and other atemporal statements, while the progressive form is used to express ongoing or habitual actions. This is in contrast with other verbs where the continuous aspect is also used to express habitual actions.

Якую-на цед ли по іиція? Звиру якую-на цед іициме.
‘Does (the) tree have any fruits yet?’ (Lit., Are there any fruits yet in the tree?) ‘The tree will have fruits in the summer.’

Existential constructions are also used to indicate possession, with the possessor marked in the patientive case and the possessed item as the subject of the verb. In case of быца, however, the possessor is marked in the genitive case instead.

Дума-на облашц іиція. Марка облашц іиція.
‘We have a pet at home. Marek has a pet.’

Дума-на травы же быція. Марка оўблейкы же быція.
‘We have no more bread at home. Marek no longer has any parents.’